Posts filed under Wisconsin

A Very Dark Fall?

Fall

This fall has been very very different for me. This year I moved from the woods in Alaska to Madison, Wisconsin. It took a while for me to find a job, but I did, I found a job after a few months which was probably the best thing that happened to me this year, well except receiving the green card this spring. Then fall happened, I got hit by a car while biking, I survived obviously, but my bike got a pretty bad hit and I am still waiting to get the bike back form the bike shop. Then Trump won, which was such a sad evening, W got so upset and sad that he cried and wondered what we were going to do. And then, mom died.

Sadness

When I am sad I always listen to this Swedish singer songwriter, Lars Winnerbäck. He puts words on your feelings, when you can't. I have been listening to music a lot these past days, wanting to find some music for moms funeral. It still feels so unreal, I think the problem here is that I am here in the US, and I haven't had mom living right next to me, right here, the past 7 years, so I feel a bit detached to the whole situation. I haven't seen my mom in real life since September 2014, which is very very sad under these circumstances. I am just so happy I got a chance to show her my Alaska not only once, but twice!

Sweden and Alaska

If I had all the money and time in the world I would have gone home to Sweden several times a year, but back when I lived in Alaska it was so hard to find cheap tickets to go that far, and with W's family being in MT it was easy to get there instead. It was impossible to go home in the summertime, because of my fieldwork and research. This summer I was alone for more than a month while W was doing research in Yellowstone, I talked to mom almost every day, and now I wish I had gone home to Sweden, but I didn't have the money to do that. And now, we thought about going to Sweden for Christmas, not that it would have helped anyway, but still.

Winter

The winter has not arrived in Madison, WI yet, we had about 70 degrees F (21C) the other day, today however it's right around freezing. Maybe we will get some snow soon. Fairbanks already has cold temperatures and snow of course, so does Sweden to a certain extent, well, at least they had snow, because my mom was so excited about the snow that she sent me pics. I guess we will see how much snow Sweden has in less than 2 weeks.

Fairbanks

Real Winter

I really miss snow, aurora, and skiing right now, but I am very very happy I was not alone in my dry cabin when I got the news about my mom. I do hope we will receive some snow here pretty soon though, I love wearing warm sweaters, dresses and tights during cold weather. There is a reason why most of my clothes consist of synthetic down and fleece material or merino or SmartWool.

Do you like wintertime? Or do you just like every single season the same?

Latest winter posts:

In The Rearview Mirror 2019 pt. 4

Christmas Skiing on Open Plains and through Herds of Bison

All the Roads Lead to Yellowstone?

Outlaw Country

Big Sky Country

Winter Travels in Montana

When I went Skiing in a Pineforest

Build Bridges instead of Gaps

Follow the Herd

Flying into the new Year

Posted on November 21, 2016 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Alaska, Madison Life, Montana, The great wide open, Wisconsin and tagged 2016_2 Madison Alaska Winter Fall Snow Wisconsin2.

Why you should look for Adventures in your "Backyard"

På Svenska

Adventure Tuesday

Mountains?

Living in Alaska definitely changes your perspective about mountains (coming from Stockholm, Sweden) and distances to places. It's amazing to have the Alaska Range as your own view every day you come to work. It's not weird to drive 544 miles (875km), through the Alaska Range, to attend a festival during 2 days and then drive back that same distance after the weekend is over.

Nothing is Impossible

People do this all the time. Another thing that I really liked about the community in Fairbanks was that no one would ever question you and your adventure plans. If you said you were going to run or ski a marathon people got excited, no one would ever question your decision to do that. As far as I know, in Alaska nothing is impossible, and anyone can do anything if you put your mind to it. The world is yours to have if you want it so go and take it!

Madison Adventures Anyone?

When I moved to Madison, WI from spectacular Fairbanks, Alaska my expectations were to find absolutely nothing that could fill my longing for the outdoors. Most of Wisconsin is flat as a pancake, ok maybe not that flat but there aren't any mountains and the highest point in Wisconsin is a hill called Timms Hill at a whopping 1951 feet (595m). The highest point in Fairbanks that I easily could get to within 10 minutes would be Ester Dome, at 2171 feet (661m), a great "hill" to run up and down. Now of course in Alaska the highest peak you could possibly climb would be Denali at 20310 feet (6190m).

Deep Forests and Dry Cabins

I do miss the mountains, the deep forest, the log cabin I used to live in...even though it came without running water and the propane stove stopped running if the temperature was around 35-40 below for too long. It's something really real about living in a cabin in the woods. Ok, my cabin was maybe not that far away from the "city" of fairbanks, but still, you could have thought it was. So coming to Madison, WI, and now living in an apartment/house, really changes your perspective of things.

Instead of the forest I now have neighbors and houses surrounding ours. I guess it's ok, but it's definitely not the same. I had to explore Madison and get to know a new perspective of adventures in my new neighborhood.

Citylife?

Moving to Madison has definitely tested my ability to satisfy my need for adventures. What is even an adventure? I don't think the adventure should be about the highest peak you climb or the longest ski you do, I think it should be about your feeling about what you are doing. If it makes you happy and you do something you might not do on a regular basis it can also be an awesome adventure. There aren't any peaks to climb here but there are a lot more urban wildlife for instance, or different plants, tons of small parks tucked into the city. The first weeks I lived here I would go for long walks around the neighborhood, and I would find all these small parks I talked about. I found a park with a lot of old trees and at least five wood peckers in that small park, that consisted of like 10 trees tucked together. We have a lot of insects I have never seen before, many many beautiful butterflies of course and a few months ago i discovered a Possum in the yard.

Adventuring

If you can't go on a big adventure, go on a small adventure, at least that is how I am surviving, at the same time as I am looking forward to future adventures of course. But it's not the end of the world to live in a city after living surrounded by the mountains, there are many many more things to discover in this world. Every weekend we have tried to go on a day hike, most of the places are pretty close (1-2 hrs from Madison) and although they do fill some satisfaction to me, I still want more. But I think the best thing is to learn to be satisfied with less sometimes, otherwise we will never be happy in this world, day and age.

Where do you go for small adventures? Do you like visiting cities or would you rather sit in a tent in the middle of nowhere?

Follow Ann Olsson at Bloglovin'

Brady's Bluff and The Fairytale Forest in Wisconsin

På Svenska

Adventure Tuesday

Brady's Bluff - The Fairytale Forest

At Perrot State Park, where we went camping a few weekends ago, there are a few very short hiking trails. One of the park rangers pointed out a short hike, up in elevation, the evening we arrived. He looked at his watch and said well if you are fast and set up your camp, maybe you'll make it in time to see the sunset. I decided that I didn't want to bike over there to watch the sunset, but after seeing the low sun and the show it already had started, I changed my mind pretty fast. After arriving at the campsite, W and I had a beer and then I biked to Brady's Bluff by myself and took pictures of the sunset.

I literally ran up all the stairs so that I wouldn't miss it.

It felt like I was running up a tree house, these pictures don't give the reality justice, even though they are really pretty!

I sent pictures to W of the sunset and he was regretting his decision so much that we went there the next day too. The view and everything was still spectacular, of course.

The bluff itself consists of sandstone that has ben capped by a certain dolomite, Prairie du Chien dolomite.

In the mid 1930's, and the depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built large parts of this trail. During the depression the CCC was formed, intended to decrease the number of unemployed people, conserve nature and to "keep youth off the streets". The results at Brady's Bluff are pretty spectacular.

These stone steps covers large parts of the trail, and today of course, some areas have been reinforced, and also new wooden steps have been added (I guess they now realized how heavy those rocks must have been and that few people would want to carry those stones up the bluff..)

Just look at all those beautiful steps, built in with nature. The trail itself started down low of course, but very fast the bluffs and the thick vegetation took over as you zig zagged and circled to get up and up and up.